


Caught in the Crossfire

by NeurotropicAgentX



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Death Threats, M/M, Off-Screen OC Death, Pi, Threats, Unresolved Sexual Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-18
Updated: 2016-05-18
Packaged: 2018-06-09 01:11:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,946
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6882988
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NeurotropicAgentX/pseuds/NeurotropicAgentX
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They never touch each other, no matter how close they get.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Caught in the Crossfire

**Author's Note:**

> Cross-post from the TFA kinkmeme for [this](http://tfa-kink.dreamwidth.org/3961.html?thread=8528249#cmt8528249) prompt. Obligatory shout-out to my editor for all her invaluable assistance. Also thanks to random!anon for encouraging a cross-post.

‘Don’t get between the General and the Knight of Ren. Just don’t do it,’ BN-3141 said. She shrugged and leaned back in her chair.

‘Easy for you to say, Three-shot. Some of us actually get ordered to interact with the brass sometimes. Besides, it can be dangerous just to _talk_ to one of them,’ BN-5926 added darkly.

BN-3141, better known as Three-shot to other stormtroopers, snorted and took a bite of her rations. ‘You’re exaggerating, Breach. The higher-ups don’t care about any of us personally.’

Breach crossed his arms. ‘Tell that to the squadron members that got redeployed after talking to the Knight. Redeployed into frontline combat, mind you. They don’t care about us, sure, but they’re kriffing with each other all the time and we get caught in the crossfire.’

‘Huh?’ said Crossfire, designation BN-5358, looking up from her plate. 

‘Not you,’ Breach said. ‘Though if you want to weigh-in on how to avoid getting killed by the Knight or the General, you’re welcome.’

Crossfire scowled and jabbed at her plate of food. ‘Don’t joke about it. I saw what happened to someone from the bee-kay squad about three shifts ago. The poor bastard was nearly killed.’

Three-shot’s eyes widened. ‘What happened?’

///

For once the argument had simmered down without either of them drawing a weapon. Hux’s expression was carefully blank, but Kylo could sense the roiling fury underneath it. It was so thick in the Force that he was having a difficult time separating it out from his own anger. They stared at one another in silence, neither wanting to be the first to walk away. It would feel too much like giving in. 

A stormtrooper came down the hallway and broke the uneasy silence. Kylo didn’t bother sparing them a glance. He didn’t want any interruptions right now. 

‘General, my lord Ren, there’s a matter that—,’ they started to say. Kylo’s hand shot out and clenched in a fist. His gaze never left Hux’s pale eyes, even as he lifted the offending stormtrooper. It would only take a thought to tighten his grip and crush the ’trooper’s trachea or snap their neck.

‘Put him down,’ Hux snapped.

Kylo smiled beneath his mask as bloodlust washed over him like a tide. ‘Beg me,’ he said.

Hux gave a sharp laugh. ‘Not even for the entire galaxy.’ He meant it. The certainty practically radiated from him. Kylo’s pulse thudded in his ears. He held the stormtrooper a moment longer before dropping him to the floor. He landed in a sprawl and only managed to make it as far as his hands and knees as he gasped for breath. 

‘Deliver your message, soldier,’ Hux ordered.

‘Hangar four,’ the stormtrooper wheezed. ‘Prisoners—’ 

Kylo didn’t wait to hear the rest of it and swept down the corridor. He’d skimmed the details from the ’trooper’s surface thoughts and he couldn’t stand being in Hux’s presence a moment longer.

///

There was silence among the BN squad after Crossfire had finished telling the story. ‘Those two hadn’t even drawn weapons or anything. There was no way to know how out of control that would get,’ she added.

Three-shot spoke up. ‘Did the General really send the messenger to reconditioning because of something the _Knight_ did?’

‘Yeah,’ Crossfire muttered. ‘Some bantha shit about "showing disrespect for senior personal". I saw it though, the bee-kay was following exact protocol.’

‘That’s not the worst of it,’ a fourth squad member interrupted. BN-9793 had been oddly quiet during the conversation, but he’d been listening closely. ‘Do you remember what happened to that jay-ex a few months ago?’ 

There was an uneasy silence. ‘Wasn’t there something about an airlock malfunction?’ Breach hazarded. 

‘That’s the story. It conveniently means there was no body.’

‘Okay, what have you heard, Lock-jaw?’ Crossfire asked.

‘I heard from one of my friends in jay-ex that the ’trooper who was supposedly killed in the malfunction was sleeping with the General.’

There was more silence around the table. 

‘No way,’ Three-shot said. ‘As if the General has sex. As if the General has sex with _stormtroopers_.’

Lock-Jaw shrugged. ‘It’s what I heard, anyway.’

///

Hux keyed in the passcode to his quarters. It had been a long shift on the bridge and he was looking forward to nothing more than a trip to his ’fresher and a long sleep. The door slid open and Hux instantly recoiled from the heavy metallic scent that pervaded the air. With mounting incredulity he saw the mess that covered his bed. Blood soaked the sheets of his regulation mattress and spattered halfway up the wall. A burned-flesh smell cut through the tang of the blood. 

Hux registered all this with a numb sort of surprise as he vaguely recognised the corpse of the stormtrooper he occasionally slept with. The nature of the wounds was distinct and he immediately knew who was responsible for this… obscenity. 

‘Well, what did you expect, general. Last shift you ordered the redeployment of every person on this base I’d ever talked to,’ Ren said. He stepped out of the shadowed corner of Hux’s bedroom. 

A part of Hux wondered how long Ren been standing there, waiting to make his dramatic appearance. The rest of him was consumed with a rage so powerful that his vision seemed to haze over. Hux’s lips peeled back from his teeth. ‘I did that as payback for you challenging my authority in the middle of the bridge!’ he snarled. ‘You had no right to pull your archaic little sword on me.’

‘You weren’t afraid.’

‘No,’ Hux said. ‘I was _livid_.’

‘And so was I, because at every turn you seek to undermine me. Your administration isn’t _power_. You’ve never seen _combat_. I won’t be threatened by a toy soldier who thinks a good head for logistics makes him anything other than a data-pusher!’

Hux drew his blaster and levelled it at Ren’s torso. ‘Get out!’

Ren closed the distance between them wordlessly until he was so close that blaster was almost brushing his chest on each exhale. There was no way he’d be able to catch the bolt at this distance, Hux thought with a vicious thrill. Ren’s expression was impossible to read behind his mask. ‘Careful, general, or one day it’s going to be you lying on blood-soaked sheets.’

Hux heart hammered. ‘Get out _now_ ,‘ Hux repeated. His voice had gone flat and calm, despite the sweat on his palms. For a moment Ren looked like he was about to say something else, but in the end he inclined his head and left without another word.

Hux waited a long moment before holstering his weapon and pulling out his datapad. He’d need temporary accommodations while this mess was sorted out. His anger at Ren throbbed low in his gut, clouding his thoughts and impelling him to respond. 

///

‘Okay,’ said Three-shot. ‘If we accept for a moment that the Knight’s been doing these sort of things, it could just be that he hates stormtroopers.’

Breach snorted. ‘No, it’s definitely some weird hate display with the General. And it definitely goes both ways.’ 

This time Crossfire scoffed. ‘That I find hard to believe. The General’s got a stick up his ass. No way he’d do anything unprofessional. I bet you he reads reports and stuff on his down time.’

‘Probably,’ Breach agreed amicably, ‘but I’ve also seen him in the training rooms and I saw him kriffing with the Knight.’

‘No way. When the Knight walks into a training room the rest of us walk out. No one’s stupid enough to stick around when he’s waving that sword. Not even you,’ Three-shot added.

Breach reached over and punched her in the shoulder. ‘Shut up.’

Three-shot grinned and made a rude gesture.

‘Anyway,’ Breach continued, ‘we _were_ going to walk out. For some reason he’d picked the most crowded training room, but none of us were going to say a word. We started getting our gear together, but then he just holds up a hand and orders us to continue as normal.’

‘Okay…’ Crossfire said doubtfully.

‘That’s what we thought. For a moment we all sort of froze, but then he just sits down on the floor in the middle of the room and he doesn’t even draw a weapon. So, after a while we just… get back to it. Keeping an eye on him, of course, in case he goes berserk. He doesn’t though, and he’s sitting so still that eventually the rest of us sort of forget about him.’

‘Forget about the _Knight_.’

Breach shrugged helplessly. ‘We did, I swear.’ He paused to take a bite of his rations. ‘Then about half an hour later the General walks in.’

The other stormtroopers leaned in. ‘And then what?’ Three-shot asked.

///

Kylo was sitting cross-legged in the middle of the largest training room of the ship. He barely seemed animate, with only the slowest rise and fall of his chest spoiling the effect. Hux’s lip curled. He wasn’t about to leave. This was his regular room because of its size. It improved ’trooper moral to see officers training side-by-side with the grunts.

The path to Hux’s usual set of equipment would take him right by Ren. He was almost certain that Ren knew this and was simply looking for an excuse to confront him over some imagined slight. But Hux absolutely refused to alter anything in his routine for the sake of Ren’s pettiness. His pulse thudded loudly in his ears as he got closer, but Ren didn’t seem to notice. He didn’t even twitch at Hux’s approach.

Something like a smile spread across Hux’s face. Perhaps that explained why Ren had chosen to meditate in such a crowded location. He must be trying to tune _out_ his surroundings. The opportunity was too perfect to waste. Hux calmly walked up behind Ren’s back, drawing his blaster as he went. He kept his thoughts neutral, and focused on administrative thoughts as much as he could, hoping to keep his true intentions hidden. 

When he was close enough, he pointed the blaster at the back of Ren’s neck, just below where his helmet ended. Ren finally tensed, but otherwise made no movement. Hux bent at the waist until his lips were close to where Ren’s ear would be beneath the helmet. ‘And this is how _you’ll_ end one day, my lord Ren,’ Hux whispered. ‘Even with your precious Force, you can’t be on guard every moment. There’s no way that you’d be able to catch a bolt from this distance.’

Ren’s breaths were coming harsher through the vocodor. ‘You’ve never killed with your own two hands. You wouldn’t have what it takes to shoot me.’

Hux hummed thoughtfully. ‘Even if that were true, you would be the exception, Ren. I would happily make you my first kill.’ Having made his point, Hux holstered his weapon and walked over to the training equipment. At any moment he expected to feel Ren’s reprisal in the form of the Force. It never came. Hux began his exercise routine. Though it was impossible to tell, he was nearly certain that Ren was staring at him from his position on the floor.

///

‘Does the General have a death wish?’ Crossfire asked.

‘I don’t know, sounds like he maybe had a point. Getting on the wrong side of high command can make your life miserable,’ Three-shot pointed out.

‘For the rank and file, sure,’ Crossfire said. ‘You know the Knight gets away with all sorts of stuff, though.’

‘In conclusion, stay out their ways,’ Lock-jaw said.

There was silence around the table for a long moment. ‘Yeah,’ Three-shot said after a while. ‘I guess that’s anyone’s best chance.’


End file.
